Democrat Jamie Raskin Says There’s No ‘Proof’ FBI Was Weaponized Against Trump Amid Patel Nomination

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said in remarks Kash Patel’s nomination to Director of the FBI that there is no “proof” that the FBI has been “weaponized” against Republicans, as Patel and president-elect Donald Trump frequently claim.

Trump nominated Patel on Saturday to head the nation’s federal law enforcement. Patel has previously vowed to dismantle leadership at the agency over what he says were politically motivated investigations and charges against Trump.

During a Sunday interview on CNN with anchor Kasie Hunt, Raskin said the agency has gone after corruption from both political parties, citing the prosecution of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ).

HUNT: Do you think there are any issues inside the FBI around politicization, as many who voted for Donald Trump seem to say?

RASKIN: Well, undoubtedly, if you look at it historically, for example, during the Cohen’s help probe period, the FBI really was weaponized against Dr. King in the civil rights movement and the peace movement. There was, you know, decades of the FBI being basically used as a political instrument.

There’s an interesting book about that, about J. Edgar Hoover by Beverly Gage…I haven’t seen what the proof is that the FBI has been weaponized against a political party or the Department of Justice. Of course, this Department of Justice has brought charges against a Democratic U.S. senator in New Jersey, a Democratic congressman in Texas.

And so some people just seem to think that it should go only in one direction. And if it doesn’t, then somehow it’s politicized. And I think that’s what they mean when they talk about politicization in the Deep state. I mean, the deep state, nobody’s ever defined it apparently just means anybody who doesn’t do the will of Donald Trump.

Watch the clip above via CNN.